G. John Ikenberry is the Albert G. Milbank Professor of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton University in the Department of Politics and the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.

Inspector O is, or was, a detective in the Ministry of People’s Security assigned to a small group charged with investigating crimes in Pyongyang, usually involving neither sex nor money. He is also, and not incidentally, a creation of James Church, a nom de plume if there ever was one.